->> Impeccable timing! I've shot years of hockey and only had two incidents with the cutouts (one was a lens, one was me - nothing bad), so it's very rare. It would be so difficult to repeat a capture as good as this this even if you tried every time.

->> Easily a one in a million shot. Even more amazing when you consider that it looks like it was taken with a wide angle lens and not a short telephoto. Most hockey photographers would probably have been using a 70-200 mm lens and instead of getting the shot, would have had a shattered lens instead. What makes this photo so remarkable is that I would guess that a puck gets through a photo hole maybe once or twice a year at the 30 NHL arenas. Even if you knew the puck was going to go through the hole, it would be nearly an impossible photo to take. A one in a million shot. Congrats to Darryl Dyck.

->> Thanks everyone for the words above and the emails about the photo. Simply put this was a hell of a lot of luck but I will try to explain in more detail for Matt and those who have sent me emails.

I try to shoot ice level during the first period when time permits and then move upstairs for the final two periods so as not to miss anything important and due to being three hours behind eastern time.

This is a hole I don't get to often, it is on the opposite side of the arena from our upstairs position/work area and has a very limited shooting angle - nothing up the ice, mostly goal area and inside the blue line coverage but I received word before the game that one of the two regular ice-level positions The Canadian Press and Reuters rotate during the first period would be unavailable.

It was Reuters' pick that night and Vancouver freelancer Ben Nelms chose the regular hole so I went for the spot directly across the ice from it that I only get to a couple times a season.

This came near the end of a very long 17-hour day that started with an out of town job for another client, included two Davis Cup tennis matches and ended with the hockey game.

At the time I was tired, my head was pounding and remember saying something to the fan beside me that it seemed a lot louder in the arena than last season. The combination of the loud music and long day left me not feeling well at all but I tried to stay alert.

I had a 1DX with a 70-200 in my hands with the strap over my shoulder and a Mark IV with a 8-15 (set around 13/14mm I believe) on my neck.

This was a really broken play that shouldn't have been anything, from what I remember there was a Vancouver shot from the far side of the ice that missed the net and deflected off the boards behind the net very quickly.

I dropped the 70-200 on my shoulder and rushed to pick up the camera around my neck thinking Sheldon Brookbank was going to check Vancouver's Jannik Hansen into the boards in front of me.

I still don't know if Hansen or Brookbank tipped that puck, all I remember is seeing it come into my field of view so I got the camera up to my eye and pulled back away from the hole, still thinking the two players were about to crash into the boards in front of me and squeezed off a couple frames.

I didn't see through the viewfinder that the puck had passed through the hole due to the mirror being up but I did feel something hit my right side and it wasn't until I heard the clang of the puck on the metal floor that I realized the puck had actually come through the hole.

I made sure the puck was directed over to a young girl sitting a few seats over and then checked the back of the camera to see if I had anything and was surprised to see the image mentioned.

I wasn't injured and no gear was damaged luckily since I immediately remembered Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell getting struck by a puck shot through a hole a few years back.

Have also witnessed lenses being hit but I've never had one come directly through at me in all the games I've covered. Usually they just sail around the top of the boards, pop up along the glass or hit the netting above and drop straight down into the stands.

->> "I made sure the puck was directed over to a young girl sitting a few seats over and then checked the back of the camera to see if I had anything and was surprised to see the image mentioned."

This. This. This. A thousand times this. A few years ago I was shooting an NHL game by our Zamboni tunnel, so there are two holes there. The shooter next to me had a puck end up in his lap, and started to put it in his pocket. I pointed out a little guy about 5 feet away from us, and kept looking at the shooter 'encouragingly' until he gave the boy the puck.

I told him that my personal rule is that the only puck you keep is the one that draws yer own blood...

->> There is nothing I enjoy more while shooting hockey than having the opportunity to hand a little kid a hockey puck. I've had the refs pass a puck through the photo hole, then indicate that they want me to give it to a kid.

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